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First, hold a royal commission into the stain that is tanking. Seek the evidence that most football fans believe exists and penalise all clubs involved.

Start with Melbourne, then make calls to Essendon, Richmond, Carlton, West Coast and Collingwood, or any team for that matter.

The second choice is to offer an amnesty to all teams, just as they did in 1993-94 to rein in salary-cap cheating, and then set penalties for any future transgressions.

It's a last chance. If you blow it - just as Melbourne, Essendon and finally Carlton did in rorting player payments - then you get a holiday from the national draft, because, after all, it is draft tampering.

There is a third choice. That revolves around the AFL "interviewing" people - this time Brock McLean, the previous time Dean Bailey - and determining after 15 minutes that the person didn't really mean "tanking" and instead it was code for list management and list building. Let's hope they take it more seriously.

Despite what most of us believe, including the converted Kevin Bartlett, the AFL doesn't believe in tanking. It hates the word.

It's why in February it removed the special assistance selection in the national draft to try to eradicate any "tanking" discussion in the public. It wasn't good for the good game, it said.

Wonder what the AFL thought of McLean's revelation?

This wasn't a pub discussion. It was between a mature McLean and Mike Sheahan, Paul Roos and Gerard Healy.

Certainly, that esteemed trio didn't rock back on the couch in utter disbelief.

Finally, a player had admitted his club - then Melbourne - did not try to win. Not the players, but a higher power via instructions.

It followed Bailey's assertion at his sacking press conference last year.

"I was asked to do the best thing by the Melbourne Football Club and I did it," Bailey said.

McLean said on Monday night: "I sat down with Dean Bailey and I brought that up with him and told him what I really thought. We were both on the same page."

So we have a coach and player admitting that elements at their club wanted defeat rather than victory. Think about that. A coach and a player.

You'd like to think the AFL would go after these claims with as much tenacity as they did when Essendon assistant Dean Wallis had a bet on the footy, or a timekeeper's assistant had a few bucks on the first goalkicker?

If betting strikes at the heart of integrity, then what in the bloody hell is throwing matches?

Instead of protecting the game's image, the AFL needs to save it.

If McLean's comments are ignored, the AFL just might be Blind Freddy's deaf cousin.